In May 2005, an unregistered editor created a hoax Wikipedia article about journalist John Seigenthaler.[1] The article falsely stated that Seigenthaler had been a suspect in the assassinations of U.S. president John F. Kennedy and U.S. attorney general Robert F. Kennedy.
After the hoax was discovered and corrected later in September, Seigenthaler, a friend and aide to Robert Kennedy, wrote in USA Today describing the article as an "Internet character assassination".[2]
The incident raised questions about the reliability of Wikipedia and other websites with user-generated content that lack the legal accountability of traditional newspapers and published materials.[3] In a December 13, 2005, interview,[4] co-founder Jimmy Wales expressed his support for Wikipedia policy allowing articles to be edited by unregistered users, but announced plans to roll back their article creation privileges as part of a vandalism-control strategy.[4] The incident ultimately led Wikipedia to introduce stricter referencing requirements for biographies of living persons.
- ^ Cohen, Noam (August 24, 2009). "Wikipedia to Limit Changes to Articles on People". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 3, 2012. Retrieved April 7, 2012.
- ^ Seigenthaler, John (November 29, 2005). "A false Wikipedia 'biography'". USA Today. Archived from the original on November 28, 2012. Retrieved October 27, 2013.
- ^ "The State of the News Media 2006". The Project for Excellence in Journalism. September 14, 2009. Archived from the original on March 22, 2016.
- ^ a b Helm, Burt (December 13, 2005). "Wikipedia: "A Work in Progress"". BusinessWeek Online. Bloomberg Businessweek. Archived from the original on April 11, 2015. Retrieved October 16, 2013.